Various Dates: The Tonga Ridge hike is a lovely hike, relatively easy to do, with pretty views, huckleberries, mushrooms and, as the season progresses, fall foliage. This year was my third year doing the hike, and pictures in this album are from all three hikes. Here's the WTA listing for the hike and note you will need a NW Forest Pass. http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/tonga-ridge
The hike starts out with some incline and a walk through the trees.
Then you break out into a walk along the ridge...
Where you'll be walking among lots of huckleberry bushes.
As of the original posting of this album (mid-Sept 2013), the berries I saw on the sunny ridge seemed to be verging on too old to eat (although more berry-like and juicy than the zombie berry pictured). But I was also had limited time and so wasn't poking around too much. You might still have good luck finding fresh patches!
Lots of mountain ash berries around. Also called rowan berries. Can be made into jelly, supposed to be best after first frost.
Also saw some patches of these. I should have put something in there for scale; while these are pretty apparently in the Vaccinium genus (home to all the huckleberries, oval-leaved blueberries, etc.), the plants are quite tiny. Less than knee high and the leaves are about the size of the first joint of my little finger. The berries are mini too. Best match I can find is the plant for Vaccinium scoparium (grouse whortleberry, grouseberry), but those berries are red. So I am not sure.
There was still a salmonberry or two cliniging to life.
This is actually a picture from a different hike, but including as an example - the trail also had some five-leaved brambleberries. It spreads like wild strawberry, but forms these little drupes. They are quite tasty! I had previously only seen them out by Darrington, so I was excited to see them elsewhere.
Beyond the berries, there are also still flowers to enjoy, like this Indian paintbrush.
I believe these are pinedrops (Pterospora)
Lots of Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea).
Even more Pearly Everlasting
Pearly Everlasting and friend
As the season progresses, there will be some brilliant fall foliage color to enjoy.
You have your fluorescents...
...orange, yellow, snakeskin...
...red. (Aside: this picture was from my first visit to Tonga Ridge, back in 2010. It was one of my first hikes ever, and I was still new to foraging at that time too. I took this picture just for the pretty color - and it wasn't until a couple years later that I realized there was a delicious huckleberry tucked in there. How my priorities have changed in the past three years!)
Even the Mountain Ash berries get in on the action.
And on my last visit, there were tons and loads of mushrooms. I have forgotten everything I've learned, so I'm not going to make myself crazy with trying to accurately label.
This one I do know: Amanita muscaria, aka the fly agaric. Poisonous (well, I'm considering it poisonous; some people do have methods to process it for eating and as of now, they are welcome to my share) and hallucinogenic. Apparently an element of the hallucinations is distortions in size perceptions, which is why it's thought to be the basis for mushroom in Alice in Wonderland.
On one visit, this gray jay or "camp robber" threw a fit when I was taking a pictures in the area. Then I noticed all these fly agarics that looks nibbled on, and wondered if I was disturbing his stash. Apparently some animals seek out the mushroom for its effects. Check out this post by Hank Shaw for more info and about his own efforts to process this mushroom safely. http://honest-food.net/2011/12/24/eating-santas-shroom/
Also lichen and moss.
One year, I saw this ugly monster, which I believe is a slime mold.
After your hike, as you head back west, you might find yourself in need of a nosh.
...I'd recommend a stop at Zeke's near Gold Bar for a shake. (Photo by my friend Rachel http://instagram.com/seattlerachel)